The word on the street in Brazil was that the Pacific GP, rescheduled to take place just a week before the Japanese Grand Prix in October will not be taking place - despite the fact that the organizers at Aida have just announced that everything is going ahead.

Our spies in F1's commercial circles tell us that there was a spectacular marketing brawl between at least four teams to get their hands on sponsorship money from Finnish telecommunications giant Nokia.

The French government is making life very difficult for tobacco and alcohol sponsors and, if this policy continues, it could have a profound effect on the Ligier F1 team, which is largely funded by the Gitanes Blondes cigarette brand.

Damon Hill last week set the fastest time of the winter testing in Estoril, Portugal, taking his Williams Renault FW17 around the circuit in a lap of 1m20.95s - just three tenths of a second slower than Gerhard Berger's pole position lap in September last year - and 0.3s faster than the previous best recorded by Michael Schumacher in his Benetton-Renault.

The Tyrrell Racing Organization has finally confirmed that Ukyo Katayama's partner this year will be Mika Salo, and that it has finalized a title sponsorship deal with Finnish telecommunications company Nokia.

There were dramas at Estoril - just after we closed for press last week - when McLaren drivers Nigel Mansell and Mika Hakkinen began complaining that their new car is too small for them and that they cannot drive without bashing their hands and elbows against the sides of the cockpit.

Gerard Larrousse has confirmed that the F1 team which bears his name will be at the first race in Brazil in 10 days time, but the Frenchman still needs a lot of money if the team is to make it to the end of the 1995 season.

Formula 1 cannot survive without constant crises; and while several middle-ranking teams are furious about the appearance of the new Ligier - which looks alarmingly like a Benetton - another potential problem is developing between the International Automobile Federation (FIA) and the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.